Anger at waste on Castlehill Road

Residents' health risk worries

RESIDENTS of Carluke's Castlehill Road awoke on Friday to find what looked like a large pile of clinical waste dumped along a 200-yard stretch of the road.

Several items including bandages, pads, wipes, gloves and bedding had been left strewn across the road, provoking a furious reaction among locals worried at possible health risks.

One Castlehill Road resident - a 30-year-old woman - said that a swift telephone call complaining about the waste had been made to South Lanarkshire Council's environmental health department. Council workers duly arrived and removed the items - which hadn't been used - later on Friday.

But the complainant - who asked to remain anonymous - was concerned that disease and bacteria could have been spread if the medical equipment had been dirty.

''Seeing that waste is not the kind of thing you expect when you live in a countryside area,'' she said. ''The people around here enjoy the countryside, but something like this ruins it for them.

''The residents are extremely angry and have started taking vehicle registration numbers so we can report the dumping if it happens.

''This street has become a local dumping ground, which is a shame when you consider that we're only five minutes away from the local tip.''

On Monday, a South Lanarkshire Council spokeswoman confirmed that cleansing services had been alerted to a waste spillage in Castlehill Road on Friday morning and the area had been cleared immediately.

She added: ''There was no danger whatsoever to the public as all the waste material - including bandages etc. - was unused.''

The medical equipment dumping - according to the complainant - is the latest in a long line of Castlehill Road fly tipping. She said it has gone on for around a year and got noticably worse in the past six months.

And she was in no doubt as to the smelliest items which had been dumped - our finned friends! ''We have had a problem with someone dumping fish for a while here,'' she added. ''It smells disgusting and we have had to pick it up and get rid of it ourselves because the stench is so great.''

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